Prof. Guido Pupillo: Cavity-enhanced transport of charge

Abstract: Strong light-matter interactions are increasingly used to understand and engineer new states of matter in the fields of quantum optics, solid state physics and material science. An emerging topic is the modification of electron transport using external electro-magnetic radiation. In this talk we present results from recent experiments [1] and a proof-of-principle model [2] for the enhancement of charge conductivity in molecular semi-conductors due to the coupling of intra-molecular electronic transitions to the bosonic field of a cavity or of a plasmonic structure prepared in its vacuum state. Light-matter hybridization results in dressed fermionic bands that can provide an enhancement of charge conductivity at room temperature and in the steady-state. We discuss a few open questions and opportunities for vacuum-based quantum science and technology.